I read that today, after having marked it in my Bible several years ago (12-6-04 to be exact, before I met Karen)… And it was timely, because I am dealing with a lot of frustration right now. What makes things bearable is that I am seeing Gods fingerprints in the middle of things as well. So that is neat. More on this in a minute.

1. Family update. Between tire blowouts (multiple times) on high mountain passes in the middle of the night, ugly rumors that have been circulated about me-us by unhappy people, virus attacks on my server and ALL my websites, and trying to earn a living, we are still in Lowman. Yes, life is still exciting, and weirdly un-normal. I mean, the drama just does not let up! And it is not drama that I-we seek out, but it sure seems to keep finding us. In any case, we like it here for the most part, but it is also suddenly feeling temporary.

Why?

I was officially sworn in as a Garden Valley School Board representative today (Lowman district), had my first board meeting as well, and got caught up to speed on some issues facing the school district there. God has definitely put me there for this season, and I look forward to serving there.

But other Garden Valley doors have also been opening for work, ministry, and social life for our family down in Garden Valley. And I-we DONT want to be driving the hour+ commute between Lowman and Garden Valley during the wintertime. So were asking God for direction, and checking out housing down in Garden Valley. I keyed in on one house in particular (that did not even appear to be for sale but that I think God was pointing out to me) after God told me no on two others that WERE listed for sale. When I researched these three houses later, I found out that the house God showed me IS in the Lowman district for the school board (the district I was elected from), and the other two were not. I had to laugh. So now we are in fund raising mode to maybe try to get the first house (that we found out later is indeed for sale by owner – how bizarre is that? It also has enough acreage with it to maybe build some dreams on…).

Another Garden Valley door open to me is the Garden Valley Radio Board. I was asked to fill a seat there as well, and am now in the midst of helping set up a community radio station. Its very exciting It is not much, but big things often have simple beginnings. And its interesting that I have often felt that a radio station was in my future, clear back even in Thorn Creek days when someone gave us a radio transmitter tower…

Then there is the off grid-alternative energy store that I have been asked to help set up and run there in Garden Valley (but not happening yet).

Then there is the youth wilderness-camping ministry dream that we share with another couple in Garden Valley, and have committed together with them to try to get off the ground (but not happening yet).

Then there is the machine shop there in Garden Valley that has agreed to help production-ize some of my hydrogen cell technology for mass production (but also not happening quite yet)…

There are other doors as well, including some that are so preliminary that I cannot really even describe them yet, but that have very exciting potential. I feel like we am standing on the precipice of something big that is ready to take flight, if I can just plant my feet finally and focus in.

Then there is the issue of TIME. When do I have the time to do any-all of this, especially if commuting an hour or more each way from Lowman? I still need to be working to put food on the table, right now!

But it all points to us eventually relocating to Garden Valley… There, the cat is out of the bag…. I was holding off talking about it until some more things were in place, and I think I can talk about it safely now…

Karen and the kids also love the idea of living in Garden Valley, and even they are asking God to open up a house there for us.

Lowman has been a good season for us, and we have enjoyed living here for the most part, but we are suddenly feeling like its purpose was actually as a time of rest and recovery, before the real work begins…

A quick kid update… Sergei is living with some roommates in Boise…. He needs prayer. Joey is in Portland and just finished his junior school year very strong. Ruthie is live-in nannying for a Christian foster family near Idaho City. Vika is at home and making progress just with good life skills. Hannah is at home and growing into more than just a little girl. Vanya is hitting those confusing almost-teenager years, but is making progress also. Vera is still at Hope House and seems to be stabilized there. Isabella just turned 7 and is the delight of the family. Clayton and Elizabeth, our new niece and nephew, are staying the summer with us as well, and life is never dull with them around. I lose track from day to day exactly how many kids we have actually living here… *chuckle*

And Karen has been making connections in Garden Valley as well, through the churches, some of the ministries, and through school board people. She has even begun working on themes for some of the retreat center cabins and-or rooms that we want to build (keep reading…).

2. Dreams and fingerprints…

I did some personal assessment and mental-spiritual house-keeping awhile back, all while asking God for fresh revelation, fresh vision and dreams, and clear direction. Even His Word says that Without Vision, people perish, and I have begun to feel overwhelmed and even like drowning. I needed new vision. And God answered with 2 things. One was open doors in Garden Valley, and second was a refined dream and vision that has been with me since the beginning. That is what I wanted to mention here, even though I do not yet know how the big picture all fits together.

I was driving to Reno a month ago on fire shop business, as I was asking God to show me something new. Actually, I was begging God to show me something new. I needed to hear from Him. I was desperate to hear from Him. And He finally began to open my eyes to something and give me something that brought me to tears.

You see, it has been on my heart for several years this whole business of human and sex traffiking. I discipled-mentored a woman who came out of it, a number of years ago, so it has been on my mind for quite awhile anyway, and in my prayers. I also currently have a good friend that is involved in traffik rescue, and we have been talking. He was telling me that there are MAYBE 100 residential beds anyplace in the USA that are dedicated to traffik recovery. There are lots of places that deal with alcohol and drug abuse, places that deal with sexual abuse and rape, lots of places that deal with emotional stuff, but no place that deals with all of these issues combined in the same person. Then he was telling me about the Russian Mafia that smuggles girls into the US in big shipping containers, girls destined for use in the human traffik and sex trade inside the US. Average age of these girls? 15. Girls per container? 60 or more.

Now you tell me what is wrong with this picture?

It broke my heart, even as it makes me raging angry….

So I was asking God about it as I was driving to Reno. Karen and I have both been asking Him.

I did not get the answer I expected.

First, as I was thinking about all the logistics of running a residential center for traffik rescu-ees, God reminded me of something. He said, quite literally, that if I can just get people into HIS presence, He can do more for them in 30 seconds, than we can do in an entire lifetime of human counseling. I am not saying that the counseling part is not important (it is!), I am saying that God wants to be the focus. I mean, He is not called the Master Physician for nothing…

So I started thinking about ways to do this, and it immediately took me back to some of my prior dreams for a retreat center that includes a chapel where worship is happening ALL the time, like 24-7 by people-groups that come in in rotating shifts to just simply worship the KING, and bring His presence down, NOT by leading worship for a group or entertaining whoever is there, but themselves worshiping, whether or not anyone else is there to hear them or not. I mean, think about it. It is the chance to enter the KINGs presence, and simply worship Him for however long your spirit needs, following the lead of musicians who are they themselves also worshipping. What an opportunity!!! It brought me to tears just thinking about it, and I find that my spirit yearns and craves in a desperate way for someplace like this to be a part of. I find that my spirit and heart want to see this happen, ten times worse than I want to build any residential center or youth ranch. I desperately want to build a place where people can enter the presence of the one true KING OF KINGS and find peace, healing, and wholeness. Darn it, I want to enter His presence myself!!!!

It is not that I cannot or do not already go before Him and commune with Him, it is more than that. I need more than the shallow well of worship that I get on Sunday mornings. I need to be able to get on my face before the King, with live worship, prayer and praise happening all around me, where I can let Him touch me, speak to me, and heal my inner wounds and scars, unlimited by time constraints. And if I need it, and my spirit responds this powerfully to it, what about the truly wounded people around us that need Him?

Then my thoughts went down the road of establishing a community of sorts around this Kings chapel, a community where broken people of all sorts can retreat to to live, find solace, find sanctuary, and commune with the King. It might be traffik rescu-ees, it might be alcoholics, it could be anybody. But it all revolves around the Master Physician.

And then it dawned on me in one of those duhhh moments, that in the Old Testament temple, when God was given a true place in the nation of Israel, they had 24-7 singers that worshipped the Lord non-stop, whether anyone was there to hear them or not. And the temple had broken people that lived there and helped it function, and-or worshipped God continually. Anna. Hannah. There are others. And God heard them, and mentions them in His Word. They reached His heart. And they did it in a framework that God set up 4,000 years ago, and showed me once again while I was driving to Reno. *chuckle*

So in the back of my mind as I drove, I was also considering a name to call this place. And as I drove through Duck Valley Indian Reservation, I saw a street name that jumped out at me. Singing Waters. It went through me like a lightning bolt, and I just started balling as I drove. It was one of those moments that you just cannot put into words.

When I got home, I began wondering if there were any places locally that might have been known as singing waters to the Indians that lived here long ago. And there is, sorta. There is a creek near here that in Pawnee means, literally, Happy Waters. What is ironic is that I had already clued in on that very same creek-basin about 5 years ago as being someplace where I wanted to eventually build a chapel and maybe a youth ranch someday… It remains to be seen if this is where Singing Waters itself is to be built, or if Happy Waters will be distinctly separate, but still somehow linked.

There were other God fingerprints accompanying this whole thought process and vision clarification, but the long story short is that God wants to build a place where people of all sorts and ages can enter HIS presence. And I want to help build it; in the worst way I want to help build it. This is (has to be) the foundation of anything else that might grow from it.

3. Tims musings.

What is the meaning of nobility? If something were easy to do, would it be noble?

I suspect rather that it is the difficulty of doing something right that makes it noble.

And boy did I need that encouragement today when I asked God to show me something, and my Bible fell open to that verse. It is like everything that can go wrong recently, has, and it just keeps happening. I keep wishing I could just lead a normal, quiet, uneventful life. But where is the nobility in that? Where is the legacy in that? Where is the trail-blazing in that? If what I wanted to accomplish were easy, it would not attain to nobility. Am I willing to settle for mediocrity and simple normality?

NO!!!

I want to strive for the nobility. Even the Bible verse Philippians 4:8 implies that we should be striving for the noble things in life, and pondering on them.

Which means that I am going to be plowing a tough road. It means I need to just get over everything that has happened and get a move on. And I can do that if I have clear vision and direction. If I have a dream worth fighting for, it gives me strength to get past everything negative that has happened over the last seven or eight years. I can aspire to nobility.

And so can you. Do not settle for being a TV and entertainment addict. Ask God for a fresh vision, and a dream to build. Then go do it! Do not be surprised when opposition hits though, and do not give up. By noble deeds you will stand! Ask the King how! He is, after all, the original source of those words….

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